Seahawks know this is their time, their opportunity

The Philadelphia Eagles were the NFC’s #1 seed for three consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2004.

In the nine seasons that followed, no team has ever repeated as #1.

Home field advantage is not common. As good as the Seahawks are, it’ll be incredibly difficult to repeat what happened this year.

Jim Harbaugh has been with the Niners for three seasons. They’ve gone 13-3, 11-4-1 and 12-4 and never been the #1 seed.

That’s crazy.

Winning the NFC West is not going to get any easier. With each team getting gradually stronger, it’s going to become harder and harder to put together a 12-14 win season.

That’s why this is such a rare opportunity.

It’s taken eight years for the Seahawks to get back to top spot. To be in a position where they’re two home games away from the Super Bowl.

That is a dream scenario for this team. And now it’s reality.

Making the most of it? That’s the hard part.

Seattle has already beaten the three remaining NFC playoff teams.

They defeated tomorrow’s opponents, New Orleans, handsomely in week 13. They demolished San Francisco in week 2. They ground out a tough road win in Carolina to open the season — a victory that’s often overlooked.

All they have to do is play two solid games to make it to the big one. Limit the mistakes. Hit some big plays. Run the football. Play good defense.

The things they’ve done most weeks for the last two years.

If it only it were that simple.

At a time when the city’s baseball team consistently underwhelms and the basketball team is playing in Oklahoma — Paul Allen, Pete Carroll, John Schneider, this team and the rest of the staff have given people a reason to believe.

And all they have to do is play two solid home games, for a shot at immortality.

If only it were that simple.

The Saints are a good football team. They have an elite quarterback. And while they haven’t travelled particularly well in recent weeks, they are a very dangerous opponent.

Maybe even Seattle’s most dangerous opponent.

San Francisco and Carolina play extremely good defense. They run the ball. They have playmaking quarterbacks who are a real threat on the move.

But Colin Kaepernick has struggled badly in his two starts at Century Link. He hasn’t been able to get into a rhythm, he’s forced passes, the atmosphere has knocked off his timing and he’s made mistakes.

I suspect Cam Newton will find it equally as tough. He shares some of Kaepernick’s qualities, but also some of his weaknesses.

Poise isn’t necessarily a characteristic you’d pin on either player. Not that they haven’t stepped up in some big games this year — because they have.

Yet in Seattle, you have to take it to another level.

Drew Brees has been in these types of situations. He’s played — and won — in this stadium. His victory here, funnily enough, was against the odds on a winless Saints team.

And while New Orleans’ defense isn’t scary in the slightest, the offense can score points.

The Seahawks don’t want this to be a shoot out. If they can control the scoring, they’ll fancy their chances to out-last their opponent. If the Saints ask a few questions by scoring regularly, it could be too close for comfort.

Brees is the x-factor here.

He has the potential to avoid getting flustered, to make key plays, to fight through the noise.

He is dangerous.

And yet it’s still on the Seahawks to deliver.

If they play a good game on defense, Brees will struggle to avoid throwing another two picks — just like he has in New Orleans’ last three road games.

They should do a better job than the Eagles against the Saints run game.

The offense needs to be creative. I think New Orleans will — again — try to shut down the run. They limited Marshawn Lynch to under 50-yards last time. If that happens again, Wilson has to prove he’s as good as we all believe.

If the Seahawks play their brand of football, do their jobs — that should be enough.

Our quarterback is too short, our corner are too tall or too big, we have a deaf fullback who was told he would never make it to the NFL, we have undersize players and oversized players, and nobody likes. We don’t care.

Waiting for Rob’s instant reaction, but I’ll say MY instant reaction is that Drew Breeds is a true franchise QB. Russell Wilson has become just a QB. It appears that either the League has figured him out or he has lost his confidence. Something is definitely going on. But this is a win, although is feels incredibly unsatisfying

Not to be contrary but Luck is already having a better game than Wilson even with the pick. I’m not saying he is a lousy football player, but has he had an impressive game since the LAST NO game? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Oh and Percy Haevin is the football equivalent of a money pit. You look at it and say ‘It’s potential is so amazing. Wait to you see it.’ And it turns out that we all end like Tom Hanks, stuck in a giant hole trapped by a rug. Harbin can go away. 3 flash plays and then being knocked out of a game isn’t worth the trade collateral nor the insane price tag he comes with

Given that he handed the Pats 7 points, I’d be hard pressed to say he’s ‘already played better than Russell’. He probably will, but not giving up 7 points counts just as much as scoring 7.

Like I said earlier, I’m more concerned with our schemes than I am Russell. He’s not missing wide open receivers, he’s not forcing balls with terrible decisions. It’s a rinse and repeat offense of deep shots.

You can’t argue the offense with Percy in it, though. It was pretty damn fun to watch. Hopefully the ‘taken out with concussion’ is precautionary. Yeah, Percy should go away though, because no NFL player ever has a banged up season.

I reiterate: He is the highest paid player on the team, hasn’t even played a complete game yet and we gave up a first round pick for him. This wasn’t a banged up season, this was a MISSED season. Every indication is that he is too fragile to be a long term option as a weapon when our games are always so physical. How can we say how he affects our offense, he hasn’t played enough to even give a sample size. To say he has been worth the price we’ve to this point, it’s speculator and irresponsible. That’s banking on what he is CAPABLE of doing, not what he is actually doing. We won’t be playing for a championship on paper or in Madden where we can just turn injuries off. Give me $12 million worth of players who can produce on the field where counts. Sorry to all the Harvin apologists, I don’t play fantasy football and I always prefer tangible results

IMO I think the seahawks have one of the easiest receiving corps to gamelan for without harvin in there. When they lost rice they lost someone who has a good given advantage over most DBs. That is height. It becomes a lot easier to be confident in your man to man coverage when the starting recievers are all under 6ft. As Rob had pointed out many times this team needsa big body who can win the jump ball one on one matchups the majority of the time. That could come in the form of a TE or a WR. I love Zach Miller but he isn’ta guy that’s going to out jump a safety and win the 50/50 balls. Neither is Luke willson. To make this offense elite they someone who when no one is open russel can throw it to the guy even when covered. Right now they are getting by on fantastic defense, run game, and a QB that manages the game very well. I never expected russel willson to be Tom Brady in his second year. Especially not in our run first offense. He had proven many times in his sorry career what he CAN do and that gets me excited for the future.

In fairness russel did miss some open receivers and left harvin wide open fora shot on the one play. Other than that he was solid. He doesn’t need to poor up Peyton Manning numbers up to bea “good” qb.

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